This invention relates to a method, system, computer program product and computer program for generating a multi-modal journey itinerary. In one embodiment of the invention, the method and system provide transportation detection for multi-modal journey planners.
A journey planner is a specialized search engine used to find the best (shortest or quickest) journey between two points. Journey planners have been used in the travel industry since the 1970s accessed by booking agents through a user interface on a computer terminal, and also to support call centre workers providing public transport information. With the advent of the Internet, online journey planner interfaces for use by the general public have become widely available. There are two prominent types of journey planners currently in existence. The first type is a single transport route planner, which plan directions within a single closed system. An example of this would be an in-car global positioning system (GPS) navigator.
The second type is an intermodal (also called multi-modal) journey planner. Such a journey planner can provide a traveller with an itinerary for an intermodal passenger transport journey, using different modes of transport. The planner can provide timetable, routing and other travel information during which a single journey may use a sequence of several different modes of transport, meaning that the planner must know about public transport services such as bus and train routes and about generalized transportation networks such as roads, footpaths and cycle routes that are used for private transportation.
Much like in-car GPS systems which rose to prominence in the early 2000's, now that a large number of individuals are starting to carry smart phones around with them, multi-modal planners will become more commonplace. For example, Transport For London has an online site where a user can get travel directions across London which uses a variety of modes of transportation. Intermodal journey planners differ from single-transport route planners, because they are essentially an aggregation of multiple single-transport route planners. This introduces a number of complexities.
For example, the TFL solution is a static implementation that a user can access online, and has some limitations and assumptions. Firstly, the planner assumes that the user is starting a new journey, i.e. that they are not mid-journey, and that they are capable of getting from their current location to the start of the directions somehow (for example by walking) Secondly, the planner assumes that the user remains on the directions. There is no detection to see whether the user strays from their path. These assumptions are common to existing intermodal journey planners. The knock-on effect of these assumptions is that intermodal planners cannot be used on-the-fly in the way that single-transport planners can be used.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to address the aforementioned problems.